Related

As calling cards go, it’s about as unusual — and effective — as they get. That’s because one of the ways Judy Kenzie advertises her new heirloom seeds business is to drive around Vancouver with a farm in the back of her truck.

Literally. A farm. In the back of her truck.

But that’s getting ahead of the story.

When Kenzie decided to move from her Kitsilano apartment, it was because she wanted some land of her own. After much searching, she found a little bungalow in Strathcona, bought it in 2002 and, after a major renovation (it had been a grow-op), and after moving a flatbed truck full of plants — including four apple trees, one plum tree, bamboo, poppies and irises — from her big west-side balcony and into the earth in her new east-side front and back yards, her perspective on life began to change.

A year ago, having devoted much of her career to marketing and advertising, Kenzie decided to pursue her real passion: growing things. She had been gardening for 30 of her nearly 50 years, and it was time to get serious about it.

Or, as she explains, “I wanted to try and make a living doing something I felt good about.”

If the dirt was calling, so, too, was the idea that urban gardens are not only economical, pretty and potentially healthful, they can also be an educational link in a community, especially an inner-city neighbourhood like her newly adopted one. And if she could combine that with her new-found interest in reintroducing gardeners to heirloom seeds, well, that seemed the perfect plan.

And so her Strathcona 1890 Urban Seed Collections was born, a home-based business that now imports and sells heirloom seeds such Miniature White Cucumbers, Baby Blue-Eyes, Pattypan Squash and Sunshine Flash Calendula, each variety painstakingly grown and tested in Kenzie’s own home garden.

Kenzie’s back sundeck, facing south to take advantage of daylong sun, is also covered with seedling containers and little pots of leafy stuff, an outdoor test lab that features oddities such as Red Malabar Climbing Spinach and other lesser-known old-school strains.

Kenzie, whose husband Wesley and sons Braedyn, 16, and Ethan, seven, are getting used to all the experiments growing around them, is currently testing a blue tomato, and notes that modern agriculture has seen the loss of nearly 500 varieties of tomatoes alone over the years.

Cleverly packaged in stylish, retro-labelled tin cans, the 14 selections in the seed collection include Junior Farmer, Urban Apothecary, Easy Peasy, Bee Garden, Edible Flowers, Quick and Dirty and the Shade Flower collection. The instant gardens are sold for $17 to $28 online and in dozens of gift and florist shops and at farmers’ markets, street festivals and sustainability fairs throughout the province.

She refers to her new mission as a “reinvention,” and to date has planted about 1,000 heirloom seeds in 40 different varieties, from herbs and edible flowers to vegetables.

As for that truck farm, Kenzie was browsing on the Internet not long ago when she stumbled on a trailer for a 2011 documentary titled Truck Farm, about a group of Brooklyn-based urban gardeners who used their “planted” truck as a mobile educational project.

Great idea, she thought, so she created a little farm of her own in her 1993 Mazda pickup truck, which had been in storage for several years and which needed a bit of retrofitting to get it roadworthy. She lined the pickup bed with heavy-duty plastic and landscaping cloth, used Styrofoam blocks for drainage and then filled it with some dirt and started planting.

Today, when she pulls up to a store, or into a parking lot, or stops at a red light, Kenzie and her four-by-six-foot truck bed full of sprouting tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, Swiss chard, parsley, sunflowers, squash, kale, chives, sorrel, savory and edible flowers like borage, nasturtiums and violas are something of a magnet.

She has done three plantings in the truck so far, including a live Christmas tree with real lights, but it got stolen. Even the licence plate is in on the act: its reads NON GMO, a hint to her activism on the natural and anti-genetically modified food fronts.

The truck farm, she laughs, “opens doors for me, for the seed business.”

Education, clearly, is a major part of Kenzie’s new mission. She recently contributed to a “food wall” at the local Ray-Cam Community Centre, and willingly takes her truck farm to any school, daycare or community centre that is interested in spreading the word about urban farming.

“I want to teach kids that they can grow something, eat it and be successful at something. I want to inspire people to grow. I came into it as a backyard gardener. Today, we’re so concerned with transportation and recycling ...

“If everyone grew just a lettuce basket, it would make a huge difference in an urban area.”

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Share

Shelley Fralic: Planting the seeds for a new kind of urban garden

Video

Life Videos

Best of Postmedia

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Ignore the diversions in the United States: athletes kneeling or standing during the national anthem; Republicans flailing and failing again on health care; a kick-boxing creationist possibly becoming senator from Alabama. Calamity looms elsewhere. We are hurtling toward war with North Korea. It may be as early as next month. […]

It wasn’t in the middle of a farmer’s muddy field or deep in the boreal forest where the Canadian oilsands truly struck pay dirt. It was inside Fort McMurray’s recreation centre. More than 1,400 oilpatch workers, corporate executives, provincial leaders and the country’s prime minister assembled 21 years ago in northern Alberta to grasp a […]

Google’s powerful search engine is defeating some court-ordered publication bans in Canada and undermining efforts to protect young offenders and victims. Computer experts believe it’s an unintended, “mind-boggling” consequence of Google search algorithms. In six high-profile cases documented by the Citizen, searching the name of a young offender or victim online pointed to media coverage […]

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.